{"id":2664,"date":"2013-11-09T04:29:46","date_gmt":"2013-11-09T09:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/?p=2664"},"modified":"2016-06-12T01:35:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-12T05:35:00","slug":"iwasaki-floats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/09\/iwasaki-floats\/","title":{"rendered":"Iwasaki floats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_1072_edited-2\"<\/p>\n

The teeth of a traditional woodworking float<\/strong>, very much unlike a rasp, span the full width of the tool. The cutting surface looks somewhat like a super-wide ripsaw. Iwasaki floats<\/strong> share some characteristics with traditional floats but have important differences<\/strong> in design.<\/p>\n

These modern floats are remarkably smooth cutting<\/strong> and leave an amazingly smooth surface<\/strong> on the wood. They have almost no tendency to “catch” on the wood. They also allow great control<\/strong> to produce a true <\/i>surface<\/strong>, such as in making fine adjustments to tenon cheeks. Aside from very hard steel<\/strong> and very sharp<\/strong> teeth, these floats have interesting features that contribute to their wonderful working properties.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_1073_edited-2\"<\/p>\n

As you can see from the photos, unlike a traditional float, each tooth row is discontinuous<\/strong> across its width. Furthermore, each row is curved<\/strong> so that most of the cutting edges are presented to the wood at a skew<\/strong> to the length of the tool.\u00a0Each gap<\/strong>\u00a0in the row is followed by a cutting edge just behind it.<\/strong> In this way, these tools act similarly to a segmented spiral cutterhead<\/a> in a thickness planer, which is also very\u00a0smooth cutting<\/strong> and produces small shavings and\u00a0tearout-free surfaces.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This also helps reduce clogging<\/strong> in the floats. The wood that does accumulate in the grooves is easily cleared by tapping the tool or, more thoroughly, by brushing.<\/p>\n

Click on the thumbnail (below)<\/strong> to see the macro photograph and note that below the leading faces of the teeth is a small curvilinear bump. This acts as a chipbreaker,<\/strong> further facilitating a smooth cut without tearout.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1071_edited-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is easy to get the feel of using these tools – use a firm but gentle<\/strong> approach to the wood. However, keep in mind that a skew is built in\u00a0<\/strong>to the cutting edge. Since the tool is “pre-skewed,” your natural tendency to skew it as you would a rasp might work against you. If you use a skewed stroke, the actual presentation to the wood of one side of the tooth line is being less skewed and may tend to catch.<\/strong> The other side is being more skewed, and the tooth line may tend to slice<\/strong> along its length. This is more intuitive than it sounds and you will quickly work out an effective approach<\/strong> with the tool for the particular task at hand.<\/p>\n

I’ve been using the 200 mm fine flat model for a few years now, and recently bought the coarse 10″ flat model. Even this, the coarsest grade, leaves a nice\u00a0fine surface<\/strong> on the wood.\u00a0The chamfer in the enlarged photo (below) is directly from this float.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1076_edited-2\"<\/p>\n

Iwasaki floats<\/strong> come in coarse, medium, fine, and extra fine grades, and flat, half-round, round, curved, and plane maker\u2019s models. Woodcraft, Lee Valley, The Best Things, and Highland Hardware have good, though different, selections. They’re a good buy.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The teeth of a traditional woodworking float, very much unlike a rasp, span the full width of the tool. The cutting surface looks somewhat like a super-wide ripsaw. Iwasaki floats share some characteristics with traditional floats but have important differences in design. These modern floats are remarkably smooth cutting and leave an amazingly smooth surface […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-product-reviews","category-tools-and-shop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2664"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4235,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664\/revisions\/4235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}